The Office of Internal Affairs

Employee Disciplinary Process

A preponderance of evidence must be established before any disciplinary action
can be taken. The Employee Disciplinary Matrix is the foundation for all action
that can be taken and imposed by the Department and shall be utilized by the
Hiring Authority to determine the penalty to impose for misconduct (matrix can be found in DOM Section 3, Article 22).

The matrix provides a base penalty within a penalty range. The base penalty
represents the starting point for an action and a Hiring Authority will impose
the base penalty unless aggravating or mitigating factors are found. The Hiring
Authority or designee is not required to impose an identical penalty in each
case because there are a variety of factors which may influence the Hiring
Authority to take stronger action in one case than it does in another.

When multiple acts of misconduct occur, the Employee Disciplinary Matrix shall
be used to determine which single act warrants the highest penalty. The penalty
range for the most severe charge will be utilized, and other acts of misconduct
are considered aggravating circumstances that may increase the penalty up to and
including dismissal.